Amelia at 17 months

Here are some things for me to remember about Amelia one day. 

At 17 months:

Amelia Loves blankets. She has 2 that she mostly uses. 

One nap daily but time varies usually by 2pm

Is girly but likes boy toys a lot

can do a somersault

tells hayden his golf instructions "back, follow thru".

when you count and say one, she will say two or three.

likes to brush what little hair she has. Also likes brushing her teeth.

does things the hard/crazy way. Like to get in Haydens bed she has to climb over the bed railing. the rest of the bed is wide open to climb up but she wants to flip herself over the gate. Same with her power wheels bus. There is an opening on each side to get in. She has to climb over the back and fall in.

likes to use the IPAD to play Jake and the Neverland Pirates or Mickey Mouse club house.

Eats all day. Have to avoid kitchen or she freaks out.

18 month clothes or 24 months now b/c sometimes 18 months are not long enough. Wears a 5 shoes. Sometimes a 6 b/c the 5's are too narrow.

Likes to get her shoes for you and hopes she is going somewhere. She LOVES shoes.

Folds her arms for prayer. And is very proud of herself when she does it.

Has the stinkiest, sweatiest feet ever.

You can't say out or outside in front of her or she screams and goes to the door.
if you say "who wants to go to Nee's (aunt renee's) she screams me!


you can't open the stairs to the basement without her coming and running to go down.

Wants whatever hayden has. You can't even give Hayden something on his dinner plate without her begging for more (even when she already has it)

you can't drink pop in front of her or anything with a straw. She wants it really bad.

likes the sandbox and dirt

is a climber. She will climb anything.

loves to sit on potty. She even pooped on the potty three times She pushes so hard!


says ma, daddy, kaycee, mine , hey, my turn, ball, banana, butt nana, doggie, blanky, thanks, please, drink, baby/brady, nay nay, bed, milk, hot, bailey, jake, minnie, fish, shoes, and her own versiton of hayden.

Knows a lot of her body parts -- eyes, ears, nose, tongue, hair, toes, cheeks, feet, etc.

She will bark like a dog too. And make a monkey noise if we read curious george.

can answer yes and no by shaking her head.

is 98th percentile for height. And 50th for weight and head.

loves to run into hayden's room when he is sleeping and scream his name and wake him up. She is so excited to see him every morning.

 

5v5 tournament

 

 

 

We had our anual 5v5 tournament this year.  It went well and the girls had fun.The tie dyed team were the winners this year.  They also won 2 years ago.

 



 

 

 

Dragon Boating -- A crazy story.

Soccer season has officially started.  To kick off the season we had a team bonding experience.  We took the girls dragon boating.  It was quite an experience.

We went out on the river and had a great view of the city.  The girls seemed to be having fun.  Then this story takea a turn...

We are out paddling and some speed boats go by making waves (much more then the ones that passed us other times).  We paddle thru but our leader (who sits up high on the chair with the drum) was thrown from the boat.  Well this made 20 high school girls panic.  The squeals were ear piercing and they all started moving around on the boat causing it to lean.  Well we started to lean further and further and were about to tip.  The boat leans to the left so far that my face hits the water! We get the girls calm and have them even out the boat.  Seriously we were about as close to tipping as you could get.  I was holding the girl up beside me!  So we even out but the boat is completely full of water, and we floated away from our leader!

We had to paddle to the side of the mountain so she could climb back in, then paddle to the nearest dock.  We had one bailer (a laundry detergent container) that we were trying to empy the boat with.  The girls were using their shoes.  We got to a dock and got the boat emptied and finally were able to laugh about it.  We were soaked.  I am so glad I took my phone out of my pocket before we left.

This is definitely an experience the girls will never forget! Despite the scare, they had fun. We enjoyed some lunch after and had a parents meeting. Now the season is under way. So far so good. I feel that we are ahead of where we were last year.  Hopefully the season is a little less crazy!

Champs

Every summer I usually join 2 soccer leagues.  One is Over 23 and you play half field.  The other is any age (and mostly college aged girls) and they play full field.  I have not played in either since before Amelia was born.  I talked to my dr. and he said that my back is probably fine and that I most likely just have permanent  nerve damage in my foot (half of my left foot has no feeling).  I don't even have a reflex in my foot.

So anyways I got the clear to try and play soccer.  I decided i would just do the over-23 league.  It was rough.  Some days better then others.  A numb foot really makes you slow.  Sometimes it gives out on you too.  But I am slowly getting used to it and adjusting.  Our team made the semi-finals. 

The girls then asked me to play with their full field team for a tournament.  I thougt I would just be a sub.  Well I ended up playing every minute of every game.  And we kept winning so we had an extra game.  We went to the finals and somehow pulled out the win!   It was a fun weekend but I sure paid for it.  I was so sore.  My back killed.  I am covered in bruises and had blisters too.  Man am I old!

Soccer Fundraiser

My soccer team is having a fundraiser this Saturday.  We have a car wash at the Getaway Cafe on McNeilly Road (same road the school is on).  You can also print the flier above and eat at the Getaway and we get 20% of the bill.

Stop by if you are free!!!!

Summer time fun

It has been a fun but really hot summer.  The kids love being outside.  Soccer starts for me so summer is pretty much done for us.  Here are some things we did this summer (besides our trips that I already blogged about):

At Aunt Renee's they swim all day. (and come home exhausted)


At home they love to play on the slide, the slip n slide and in the sandbox under the pine tree.  And the sprinkler.


We try to stay cool


Amelia gets covered in sap from the pine tree. 



Both love the sandbox


We play dress up to amuse Mommy.


Which Hayden does not find amusing...



We walk the trail and Hayden rides his bike.  Sometimes we run.

Then we go and play in the creek.


Mike and Hayden did a creek walk to look for clay.



We play basketball.  (the kids also love to golf and hit golf balls)



We have gone to the wavepool

Where Amelia continues to love to go out to her neck and then try to swim and refuses to let you touch her.  So she drowns in 2 feet of water.  Then gets mad when you rescue her.

Mike has joined a golf league and is enjoying it.  I have rejoined my soccer team for 1 league.  I have really struggled with having the numb foot.  It just slows me down so much.  It is very depressing. 

Some misc pictures from the summer...

Racoon Creek State Park

It has been super hot in Pittsburgh.  This weekend in July it was going to be around 100 degrees.  Our Air Conditioner doesn't work well so we didn't want to sit at home in the heat.  We decided to head to the lake.  Hayden has been asking to go to the beach and we figure he would think this was the beach.  It has sand and water so he was happy.


We went early before it got hot and took a short hike to the mineral springs area.  The trail was very overgrown.  Phil and Kris hiked along with us.



It was a mile round trip hike to the springs.  Water comes out of rock and in the 1800's it was believed to have special healing powers.  So they built a resort there for guests to stay. 

We visited the cave where there is a waterfall in the spring.


We touched the healing water.












We also visited the old resort.


Amelia got filthy


But looked cute doing it. 

And of course Hayden is super cute too (I am biased though).

Then we headed to the beach area and had lunch and then went swimming.  The area was not as crowded as I thought. 



Hayden had a blast. He could stand in the water so he loved it.  And there was plenty of sand in the beach area unlike other lakes in our area. 

Amelia loved the lake. She didn't want to be held. She actually wanted to swim.

She kept trying and would go under and come back up and try again. She had no fear and would go up to her chin in water and just laugh. If we tried to bring her back to more shallow water she would scream and cry. My crazy little girl. I will have to get her in swim lessons as soon as she can go.

I would like to go again in the spring and see the waterfall and do a hike.  Hayden would like to go back and go fishing. 

Here are the rest of the pictures: